TwinCitiesLive has a video of Julie Dey’s appearance on Friday to promote the Minnesota Nathan’s qualifier. She says she was inspired to enter by Pat Bertoletti and his girlfriend. After describing the typical amount of food she eats in a buffet, she competes in a short contest against one of the shows hosts.

Julie Dey ate 11 hot dogs to finish third in her first ever official eating contest. The contest was held in a cold rain and Pat Bertoletti claimed the hot dogs were leathery. If you think that Pat Bertoletti would have eaten %50-%100 more in optimal conditions and adjust Ms. Dey’s performance by a similar amount, it could have rivaled Sonya Thomas 18 HDB in 2003 (in 12 minutes) as one of the top overall competitive eating debuts at a Nathan’s qualifier.

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Andrew “A-Bomb” Lane is apparently competing at a foot long hot dog contest in Brighton, Colorado today and reports that Dale Boone is also present.

update Boone won with 9.5 foot longs

update #2 Andrew Lane has a blog entry and gallery

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update Fox4KC has a gallery

from http://twitter.com/alphajag/statuses/2056166613 GRAVY BROWN WINS! GRAVY BROWN WINS! Nathans Hot Dog eating contest @ Sams!!!

Mongo Marquez has the top 4:
1. Tim “Gravy” Brown 32 HDB
2. “Buffalo” Jim Reeves 27.5 HDB
3. “Mongo” Marquez 27 HDB
4. Bryan “Big Sexy” Beard 22

The twitters of Mongo Marquez and Bryan Beard report they will compete in the Overland Park qualifier.

Val Bromann is already at the contest site.

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update #2 WCCO has video from the contest

update The top 3 from MLE via Crawfish

1 Pat Bertoletti 26
2 Mark Williams 13.5
3 Julie Dey 11

Julie Dey has the best female debut since Juliet Lee and is the 8th female with a 10+ HDB Nathan’s result according to the eatfeats database. The contest was her first according to a comment in a CityPages blog entry.

It is surprising Patrick Vandam did not compete.

George Shea reports that Pat Bertoletti won the Minnesota Nathan’s qualifier with 26 HDB. DeepDishEats confirms the total. Cold rain contributed to Bertoletti’s unexpectedly low amount.

In a startribune.com comment, someone claiming to have done 31 HDB says he will participate in the qualifier, which would probably be Patrick VanDam if accurate.

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update #2 4 pictures have been added to the article. The caption of the third picture confirms that Jay Gorman came in third.

update HamptonRoad has an article

Results from http://twitter.com/eatingcontest/status/2056038464

1. Sonya Thomas, 36 HDB 3rd Norfolk qualifier victory
2. Joe Tursi 16.33
3. Jay Gorman 16
4. Will Schmeirer 15.5

Jay Gormand might be AICE strawberries runner-up & Baltimore sushi winner Jay Gorman

Twitpics from before and after the contest

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The Daily Press has an article about William and Mary student Stuart Sheilds, who will compete in the Nathan’s Norfolk qualifier tomorrow.

update HamptonRoads.com reports that Tim O’Brien will also compete

Youtube has a video of a contest on Fox 43 in which Joe Tursi participated

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The Pitch’s preview of the Kansas City (Overland Park, KS) Nathan’s qualifer says that the contest will take place on Sunday (The official schedule says it will occur on Saturday) and that “Buffalo” Jim Reeves will compete.

update George Shea confirms that the contest will take place on Saturday and that Gravy Brown will compete

update #2 NBCActionNews has an article about the contest

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